Habits. The habits of tigers and lions are for the most part similar, except that the tiger inhabits more wooded countries. Both animals are mainly nocturnal in their movements, sleeping in the daytime and wandering greatly in search of food at night. Both are excessively powerful, and able to kill large animals, such as full-grown cattle, horses, or even camels for food, and both occasionally kill men, and are greatly feared by the inhabitants of the country. Round animals of so ferocious a nature a series of myths have naturally collected, and it is difficult to unravel the true from the false in such traditions. It is not surprising that even intelligent sportsmen, finding that particular classes of natives have a singularly accurate knowledge of the haunts and habits of wild animals, should not alvays be able clearly to distinguish which of these habits have actually been observed, and which are merely traditional, both being equally believed in by the narrators.
Lions are perhaps bolder than tigers, and certainly much more noisy, their habit of roaring, especially in the evening and at night, having necessarily attracted the attention of all who have been in countries infested by them. Of the two the tiger, though standing lower, is heavier in the body, and I think the more powerful animal.
In India lions feed chiefly on deer, antelopes, wild pigs, cattle, horses, donkeys, and camels, and used formerly to kill many of the latter. Whether lions usually kill their prey, as tigers do, by breaking the neck, I cannot say; in the only cow I ever saw that had been killed by a lion (in Northern Abyssinia) the vertebræ were not dislocated. I also saw a lioness hold a camel by the throat for some minutes, without attempting to break its neck.
Lions are more easily tamed than most of the felines. They often breed in confinement[1]. The period of gestation is about 108 days, and from three to six young (in India it is said two to three) are commonly born in one litter. The eyes are open at birth. Young lions want the mane, which becomes gradually developed after the full growth is attained.
29. Felis tigris. The Tiger.
- Felis tigris, L. Syst. Nat. i, p. 61 (1766); Blyth, Cat. p. 54; Jerdon, Mam. p. 92; D. G. Elliot, Mon. Fel. pl. iii.
Bágh, Sher (female Bághni, Sherni), H.; Náhar, Sela-vágh, H. of Central India; Babr, P.; Mazar, Baluchi; Shinh, Sindhi; Padar suh, Kashmiri; Patayat-bágh, Wahág, Mahr.; Go-vágh, Beng.; Tut, Sad, Hill tribes of Rájmehál; Garúmkúla, Kol.; Lákhra, Uraon; Krodi, Kondh; Kula, Sonthal, Ho and Korku; Púli, Tam., Tel., Mal., and Gond; Púli-redda-púli, Peram-pilli, Tam.; Pedda-púli, Tel.; Perain-púli, Kúdua, Mal.; Kuli, Can.; Nári, Kurg; Pirri, Bürsh, Toda; Tág, Tibetan; Túkt or Tük, Bhot.; Sathong, Lepcha; Keh-va, Limbú; Schi, Aka; Matsá, Garo; Kla, Khasi; Sa, Ragdi, Tekhu, Khudi, Naga; Humpi, Kúki; Sumyo, Abor.; Sü, Khamti; Sirong, Singpho; Kei, Manipuri; Misi, Kachari; Kya, Burmese; Kla, Talain; Khi, Botha-o, Tupuli, Karen; Htso, Shan; Rimau, Harimau, Malay.
- ↑ For an excellent account of the lions bred in the Dublin Zoological Garden, see V. Ball, Trans. Roy. Irish Academy, xxviii, p. 723.
